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Class __ 

Book_ 

Copyright N° 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 











A DAY IN A 
COLONIAL HOME 








» 


















































































Plate I. Colonial Kitchen in the Newark Museum 











































A DAY IN A 
COLONIAL HOME 


BY 

DELLA R. PRESCOTT 

it 

EDITED BY 

JOHN COTTON DANA 



BOSTON 

MARSHALL JONES COMPANY 
1921 




COPYRIGHT *1921 
BY MARSHALL JONES COMPANY 



THE PLIMPTON 
NORWOOD-MASS 


AUG -5 '21 

©CLAS17854 


PRESS 
• U • S ' A 




<v 




To 

MY MOTHER, MARY JANE 





















































PREFACE 


V HE average home to-day has conven¬ 
iences to meet the demands of com¬ 
fortable living. The heating and 
lighting are good. In nearly every 
home may be found a living room where the 
family assembles for rest and recreation. Here 
they read, sew, chat, and discuss the news. 
Similar scenes occurred in the colonial days, 
but in quite a different room. The kitchen took 
the place of our modern living room. The life 
of the colonists centered in it, for in the kitchen 
was the fireplace, often the one source of heat 
in the whole house. Its warmth and cheer and 
its use as a place for cooking made it the heart 
of the home. Here it was that the family in¬ 
terests and activities were centered; all the 
family group collected here to share the joys 
and sorrows of life. 


vii 






HOW THE STORY CAME TO 
BE WRITTEN 


A FATHER came into the Newark Mu¬ 
seum to ask help of the educational 
v adviser. 

“I cannot get my children inter¬ 
ested in their ancestors,” said he. “They 
don’t feel any pride in being descended 
from a lady who came over in the Mayflower. 
They say, ‘Oh, Charlie’s uncle came over in a 
private yacht, and Mike’s brother is going 
over in an aeroplane.’ What shall I do? If 
we were living at the old homestead, I could 
show them the hole in the shutter through 
which the Indian shot their great-uncle, and the 
oven by the fireside where their great-grand¬ 
mother cooked for the continental soldiers, and 
the wedding dress of their grandmother. But 
the old place was sold, and everything is 
scattered.” 

“Bring your children to the Museum,” said 
the educational adviser. “We will show them 


IX 


X A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


colonial costumes and candle-molds and Indian 
arrows.” 

“I’ll try it,” said the father, “but it won’t be 
the same.” 

Then came a teacher. 

“I wish,” said she, “that I could make his¬ 
tory alive to my pupils. They don’t care how 
many men were killed in the battle of Mon¬ 
mouth, or what the date was when Washington 
crossed the Delaware.” 

“We will send you some dolls in colonial cos¬ 
tume and an old wool-carder,” said the educa¬ 
tional adviser. 

“Thank you,” said the teacher. “Of course, 
those things will be better than nothing.” 

It was this need to see “the real things” that 
caused the Museum to build in its big hall at 
the top of the Newark Library a colonial 
kitchen, and fill it with colonial furnishings. 
Then the students from the Normal School 
dressed up in colonial clothes and went to work 
in the kitchen, spinning, making candles, and 
sewing carpet rags, and explaining these 
things to the children who flocked in to visit 
them. 

Next Miss Prescott began to play with the 
children who flocked there, and then the An¬ 
drews children of this story were born. 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME xi 


The six or eight thousand children who were 
taken by their teachers to see this kitchen dur¬ 
ing the ten weeks that it stood there, many of 
whom then took their parents to see it, will 
perhaps read this story about the labors, and 
the play, and the love-making of Mary Jane, 
with interest. 

Any group of manual training boys and do¬ 
mestic art girls can put up such a kitchen, 
dress the characters, and act out such a story, 
and in many American neighborhoods they can 
borrow “real things,” for their stage prop¬ 
erties. 

Of course, the story was not written to stim¬ 
ulate handwork or theatricals. Nor was it 
written to Americanize, or re-Americanize any¬ 
body. But simple stories without ingenuity 
of plot or striking incident have always been 
told by parents and grandparents and maiden 
aunts to the delight of children. “Tell us what 
happened when Grandpa was a miller”; “Tell 
us about when you went to school through the 
woods”; “Tell us how the bear frightened 
Great-Aunt.” These are the demands of chil¬ 
dren of all nations. The peculiarity of our 
situation is that so many of our children are 
step-children, half-children, adopted children. 
It is a mercy that there is an inheritance not 


xii A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


only of blood, but of memories, of ideas, and of 
hopes. 

If this story stimulates emulation of the real 
virtues of our forefathers, who founded the 
country, and hence leads to real patriotism, it 
will have achieved the desire in the hearts of the 
authors and publishers. 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PLATE FACING PAGE 

I. Colonial Kitchen in the Newark 

Museum. Frontispiece 

II, Colonial Fireside. 32 

III. Domestic Industry. 40 

IV. Tea Time. 42 

FIGURE PAGE 

1. Well and Well-Sweep. 3 

2. Candlesticks. 4 

3- Porringer or Shallow Bowl. 7 

4. Cast-Iron Skillet. 8 

5- Tin Kitchen or Roaster. 9 

6. Plate-Warmer. 10 

7* Wool Spinning-Wheel. 14 

8. A Cradle ... -. 15 

9. Wooden Churn. 16 

10- Flint-Lock Gun and Pistol. 19 

11. Warming-Pan. 21 

12. Snuffers. 22 

13. Reel for Winding Thread. 25 

14. Kettle. 27 

15. Swinging Crane . 28 

16- Sewing-Bird. 30 

xiii 






















xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

17. Andirons or Fire-Dogs. 32 

18. Toasting-Rack. 33 

19. A Gridiron. 33 

20. Knife-Tray. 34 

21. Spectacles and Bible. 34 

22. Wheel for Spinning Flax. 39 

23. Powder-Horn. 43 

24. Swift for Winding Yarn.. . 45 

25. Spider or Skillet with Bail ... 66 

26. Colonial House. . 67 

27. Floor Plan. 68 













A DAY IN A 
COLONIAL HOME 











































<iA Day in a Colonial Home 


M ARY JANE awoke, startled. Had 
she overslept and not heeded her 
father’s call? She jumped out of 
bed on to the strip of rag carpet 
laid on the cold floor. The chill of the early 
May morning made her shiver, and, with moth¬ 
erly care, she turned and straightened the 
patchwork quilt on her two sisters, mischievous 
Abigail and gentle little Dorothy, who were 
sleeping warmly in their feather bed. The 
world was a-quiver with life and sound. Mary 
Jane looked anxiously through the small-paned 
window. Surely, Providence would grant a 
pleasant day for the last of the housecleaning! 
Her mother was ill with the new baby brother 
and the kitchen must be cleaned before she was 
about again. It was not easy to do the work 
as well as her mother would have done it, but a 
bright, sunshiny day would help. 

The sun was just rising and a cool, northwest 
breeze was blowing the mist from the pond and 
gully. The sunlight sparkled on the pond 
1 


2 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


which lay across the foot of the field and the 
breeze blew it into dark blue ripples. Mary 
Jane dreamed a minute. John Lewis must be 
in port, she thought, and perhaps he would be 
home to-day. His father’s whaler, the Breezy 
Belle , had reached Gloucester the first of the 
week. If she planned well and hurried the 
work she might be able to go down to Jenny 
Lewis’s in the afternoon to see her new dresses. 
Jenny Lewis was John’s sister, and she had 
more pretty clothes than any girl in town. It 
would be a welcome change to visit her before 
supper. The past week of housecleaning had 
been a busy one, for the girls had cleaned the 
dooryard and the entry as well as the back 
room and the loft bedroom. Their mother, be¬ 
fore her illness, had cleaned and aired her best 
front room and put back in their places the 
few pieces of furniture which stood in this cold 
and little-used room. 

The well-sweep creaked in the breeze, and a 
whiff of the smoke of the kitchen fire, pouring 
out of the chimney, blew up the stairway. Mary 
Jane straightened her simple gray dress, fold¬ 
ing a fresh white kerchief across her breast. 
The neighbors called her smart and comely. 
She was sixteen, and tall and strong, the oldest 
of eight children. Her brothers and sisters 


A DAY IN ACOLONIAL HOME 3 


knew her to be gentle as well as firm and just. 
They never shirked Mary Jane’s orders, but 
they carried to her their bruised toes and cut 
fingers, the stitches dropped in their knitting, 



Figure 1. Well and Well-Sweep 


the knots tied in their patchwork. She bound 
up their hurts and set them to work again. 

“Daughter,” called her father from the foot 
of the stairs, “the day comes on apace, and it 
promises a clear sky for your cleaning. Grand¬ 
mother is tending your mother and the new 
babe, but John and I will need the porridge hot 
when we come back from foddering.” 

Mary Jane answered her father gravely and 
picked up the candle to take with her to the 















4 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 

kitchen. She called the older of her sisters. 
The three all slept in the low-ceilinged up¬ 
stairs chamber. “Come Abigail! You are in 
truth a sleepyhead. Come! Everything’s 
awake, and we have much to do! Father has 
called and indeed you must hurry.” 

In the kitchen a glowing bed of red-hot coals 
burned on the hearth, streaks of sunlight 
glanced through the eastern windows and 



Figure 2. Candlesticks 







































A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 5 


touched the snowy, coarse cloth on the large 
dinner-table. Soft reflections shone from the 
pewter porringers hanging on the dresser; a 
sunbeam flecked with bright light the brass 
candlestick which Mary Jane set near its mate 
on the mantel over the hearth. In the south 
windows red geraniums blossomed and there 
was an atmosphere of homely cheer and com¬ 
fort in the room. All winter, the family had 
gathered in the kitchen and, in its warm cosi¬ 
ness, Mary Jane had spun, darned mittens and 
knit stockings. She loved the kitchen, and she 
worked there happily and energetically, putting 
into her tasks that same heartfelt devotion to 
duty that her great-grandfather had brought 
across the sea to the Massachusetts colony more 
than a hundred years before. 

Her mother called quietly from the nearby 
bedroom, and Mary Jane tiptoed in. The 
baby was asleep and the sight of him in his 
helplessness and of her mother, always so 
strong and active, lying now so quiet and help¬ 
less at the beginning of a busy day, stirred her 
strangely. She bent awkwardly and kissed 
them, and blushed as she straightened up. 
Kisses were rare in her home, and she was sur¬ 
prised at herself. Her grandmother came in, 
and a commotion from the kitchen warned her 


6 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


that the boys were awake. Her three younger 
brothers, steady Thomas, and the twins, Asa 
and George, slept in the turn-down bed in the 
corner of the kitchen. They tumbled out and 
helped and punched each other into their 
clothes. 

“No shoes and stockings to-day, boys,” 
Mary Jane called. “Housecleaning time, and 
shoes have barely lasted through the frost.” 

Going to the table in the corner, she poured 
water into the wash basin. She washed her 
face and hands in the cold water, newly drawn 
from the well, gasping with the shock of its 
coldness, and rubbed her face briskly with the 
linen towel which hung over a roller on the 
door. 

Suddenly the back entry door swung open, 
and roly-poly Sam Dodd came in, swinging an 
iron pot. 

“Good-morrow, neighbors! Can you lend us 
a coal? As the weather grows milder I fear we 
tend our fire none too carefully.” 

“Did you know John Lewis had come home?” 
he called to Mary Jane. “Some of us stopped 
to see him last night and Jenny came out and 
two or three of the neighbors. Mother says 
it is ungodly the way Cap’n Lewis dresses 
Jenny. ‘Fine feathers don’t make fine birds,’ 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 7 


she says, and Jenny doesn’t work enough to 
pay the Cap’n. She’s a fair gad-about. He 
toils mightily to get the whale oil to buy her 
gowns. John seems real pleased to be home, 
Mary Jane. He asked where you were.” 

Grandmother came into the kitchen as Sam 
started out with his borrowed fire. 

“Pray tell thy mother, Sam, that the candles 
she helped us to make last fall are lasting well. 
We have treasured the choice green bayberry 
candles. Your mother will remember the day 
she helped me pick the bayberries for them. 
Now we do not need so much candle light, as 
the days grow longer. Thank her kindly for 
the bowl of rich soup she sent Daughter An¬ 
drews. Daughter will soon be up and about. 
Our new babe is six days old and strong and 
lusty. Hear how he cries.” 

Sam grinned and bore off his coals fallen 
from the burning sticks; while Grandmother 








8 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


took the bowl of porridge in to her daughter. 

Drawing the settles up to the table Mary 
Jane placed her father’s chair at one end and 
her mother’s at the other for Grandmother. 
Abigail and Dorothy seized the small brothers 
and sisters and scrubbed them clean. Where¬ 
upon the children took their porringers and 
wooden bowls from the dresser and stood in 
their places behind the settles. Abigail 
strained into a pail the warm, frothy milk 
which John, the oldest brother, had brought in, 
and Dorothy filled the large pewter tankard 
with cool milk from the cellar way. Mary Jane 



Figure 4. Cast-Iron Skillet 


bustled about. She dished up from the steam¬ 
ing kettle on the hearth the corn meal mush, or 
hasty pudding, and added a large, thin Johnny 
cake, which she had browned in the skillet. 











A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 9 


The children folded their hands and bowed their 
heads. Grandmother had returned to the table. 
Father leaned over the high back of his chair 
and asked the Heavenly Father’s blessing on 
home and family and sought guidance in the 
tasks of the day. 

Mary Jane admired her father more than 
anyone else in the world. Wasn’t he always 
right? She wandered. This morning while she 
sat with bowed head she asked herself, wistfully, 
if her father ever found it hard to decide be¬ 
tween pleasure and duty. What would he say 





















10 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 



Figure 6. Plate-Warmer 


































































A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 11 


if he knew how much she wanted to see Jenny 
Lewis’s new clothes? Would he think her friv¬ 
olous? As she raised her eyes, she found her 
father looking quietly at her. Somehow, she 
seemed to feel as if he understood her better 
than she did herself and she sat up straight and 
proud because he was her father. She felt cer¬ 
tain that he would choose his duty however 
hard he found it. 

As Mary Jane ate her mush and milk, she 
planned her day and thought occasionally of 
Jenny Lewis. In Jenny’s home they used a 
tin kitchen, or roaster, for their goose. But 
Mary Jane’s family were poor, and they used 
a home-made device for roasting their goose. 
To a string hung in the fireplace Mary Jane 
would tie the goose’s leg and Asa would sit 
in front of the fire and twist the string, so that 
the goose might become evenly browned. 
Jenny’s mother used a plate-warmer, made with 
one side open to the heat, but Mary Jane would 
dip her plates into a kettle of hot water and 
never envy her friends their extra comforts and 
luxuries. However, Mary Jane did have a 
lively interest in new things and pretty clothes, 
and she said to herself that she would get 
through her work and have an hour or two be¬ 
fore supper to visit Jenny whether or no. 


12 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


Her father had set the churn near the hearth 
and the cream was warm enough for Thomas to 
beat. The brick oven was well heated, and she 
could bake apple pies, using the last of the 
dried apples. George should take down the 
few strings of apples which were left hanging 
on the kitchen rafters, and Dorothy should 
wash them at the well. It would not take long 
for Dorothy to clear away the dishes and fold 
the table-cloth and napkins. The family had 
few dishes and most of these were pewter bowls 
and porringers. A few blue dishes of Grand¬ 
mother’s, that she had brought from England, 
were left. These were used only on rare occa¬ 
sions. Mary Jane would wash them herself. 
The silver spoons and Mother’s white-handled 
knives must be scoured with care. Abigail 
should attend to them and the pewter and the 
tin-lined copper kettles. Abigail liked to make 
them shine and Mary Jane knew that when one’s 
heart is in a task the work goes quickly. There 
was always wool to card, and the small boys 
might do this in odd moments. When the fire¬ 
place was cleaned out, one of the boys must 
empty all the ashes into the leach barrel. 
Through the winter the family had saved the 
ashes and all grease from cooking and butcher¬ 
ing and, in the fall, Mother would make soft 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 13 


soap. Mary Jane’s mother and grandmother 
always had good luck with their soft soap, and 
in the clear jelly-like substance there remained 
little trace of the rancid grease and strong lye 
from which it had been made. 

The simple but nourishing breakfast was 
soon over. Father spoke occasionally to John 
about the work of the day. “The flax patch 
must be harrowed and sowed and the sods 
turned for the corn,” he said. 

“This is a likely drying day, John; the wind 
and sun will draw the dampness from the earth, 
and take the dust from your rugs, too, Daugh¬ 
ter,” he added, as he rose and picked up his 
broad, soft hat. 

“Remember, children, that your mother has 
taught you to work quickly and with care. 
Show that you have learned your lesson well. 
Boys, stand ready to handle the dasher, or 
turn the roast. Come, John.” 

Breakfast finished, all became bustle and stir. 
Grandmother slipped briskly to her large, wool 
spinning-wheel. She was white-haired and full 
of years, but still she plied her task of spinning 
energetically and skilfully. She had learned it 
long before in a shire of England where wool 
was raised and made into cloth. Grandmother 
was graceful and dignified in carriage; for 


14 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 



Figure 7. Wool Spinning-Wheel 


many years of her life she had walked back 
and forth at her wheel, lightly poised and alert. 
She lifted her spinning-wheel, and, with awk¬ 
ward help from Thomas, carried it into Mother 
Andrew’s room. 

“I must needs be out of thy way, Mary Jane, 
and will spin in thy mother’s room to-day.” 

But Grandmother soon returned, holding the 
baby in the crook of her left arm. She seated 
herself near the fire and unwrapped many 
layers of soft woolen covers from little Samuel. 




A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 15 



Figure 8. A Cradle 


Dipping her elbow into the basin of warm 
water at her side, she found it just right and 
bathed the baby quickly, wrapped him again in 
the folds of the flannel, and retied his little cap. 
She then put him in the cradle, and called 
Thomas to rock him to sleep. 

Mary Jane told her brothers and sisters 
what she expected of each of them before she 
pulled out her rolling-board and started to 
make pie-crust. 

Abigail banged the churn dasher up and 
down and thought eagerly of the pewter and 
brasses to be polished. 

“Thomas, methinks the wee child must be 





16 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 



Figure 9. Wooden Churn 



































A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME IT 


asleep. Stretch up to this churn dasher and 
prove yourself a dashing knave,” she said. 

“Abigail, teach not to children such play on 
words,” chided Mary Jane. 

Abigail frowned and said, “You were not 
always so proper in your speech, Mary Jane, 
before John Lewis came a-courting.” 

Mary Jane, flushed and flustered, knocked 
her cap awry, and accidentally wiped a floury 
hand across her cheek. 

“Do you suppose that I shall be thus im¬ 
proved when someone comes a-courting me?” 
Abigail went on. “What do you think John 
Lewis may have made you? He has had time 
enough for many a turn of the hand. It is 
full three months since the whaler put out from 
Gloucester. Do you think that even a slow- 
witted fellow like your John may have speed 
in his fingers? Perchance he whittles faster 
than he talks?” 

“Abigail,” Mary Jane interrupted, “the but¬ 
ter must have come. Run out to the well for 
fresh water. I will gather the butter while you 
are gone. Curb your saucy tongue, sister. 
Mistress Dodd is coming up the road with her 
pot of beans, and I would not have her hear 
your foolish gossip.” 

“John wants the flint-lock, Mary Jane. Pass 


18 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


it down to me quickly. Oh hurry, kindly,” 
Abigail called as she tumbled in at the doorway. 
The little boys followed close at her heels. “The 
dog has dug out a woodchuck in the stone wall, 
near the flax patch, and John thinks he can pot 
him. Do hasten, Mary Jane! Your fingers 
were not always thumbs.” 

The gun was loaded, for when it was wanted 
it was wanted quickly, and loading was no quick 
matter. Throwing it over her shoulder as John 
would have done, Abigail ran from the house. 

Dorothy could not bear to have killed even 
a woodchuck who ate the flax plants. Mary 
Jane knew how the child loved all dumb crea¬ 
tures, and she sent her out into the south door- 
yard, patchwork in hand. Dorothy sat down 
on the door-step and sewed. She was setting 
patchwork blocks for Mary Jane’s new quilt. 
It was a “Job’s Trouble” pattern and there 
were in it many hexagonal blocks of real India 
chintz, and French calicoes that Jenny Lewis 
had given Mary Jane. Dorothy sewed over 
and over with painstakingly small stitches. 
But the spring day enticed her, and she stole 
away from her stint. She poked with a stick 
among the roots and dried leaves in the garden 
border, and thought eagerly of the colors and 
sweet odors soon to awaken there: hollyhocks 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 19 








20 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


and purple stocks, candytuft and pinks, Sweet 
William, by the door-step, and love-lies-a-bleed- 
ing, Queen Margarets, larkspur, tiger lilies and 
bouncing-bet, and sunflowers to be planted here 
and there with corn. Dorothy played only a 
few minutes, for conscience urged her to pick 
up the unfinished square of patchwork, and she 
soon went back into the house. Mary Jane 
bade her show Mistress Dodd into their 
mother’s room, for her own arms were deep in 
the butter-bowl. 

After Abigail had helped dig out the wood¬ 
chuck, she brought in the two pails of clear 
rinsing water for the butter, and hastened to 
start her own task of the day. The pewter 
and copper should be made to shine as never 
before. She arranged on the far end of the 
dinner-table, pewter porringers, solid silver 
spoons, the pewter tankard and one large pew¬ 
ter plate and several small ones, the long-han¬ 
dled brass warming pan, two tall brass candle¬ 
sticks and the snuffers from the mantel. She 
even removed the flint-lock pistols from their 
holsters beneath the mantel. Their brass 
mountings were dull and lustreless. She looked 
longingly at the brass clasps of Father’s large 
Bible. When Mary Jane was elsewhere it 
might be possible to make them shine as they 
should. 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 21 









22 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


“You have a lively way, Abigail, when your 
interest is taken. If we hasten, we may have 
the kitchen ordered by dinner-time.” 

“Who is this?” Abigail exclaimed. 

Mary Jane looked up in consternation. Her 



Figure 12. Snuffers 

father was bringing in two men; one was the 
minister and the other a stranger. She could 
hear them wiping their boots on the old rug 
on the porch. Abigail sprang helpfully for- 





A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 23 


ward to gather up and conceal her cleaning 
rags, and in doing so overturned the churn, 
half full of buttermilk! Mary Jane heard the 
crash, and saw the door open. Her father 
stepped right into the rushing stream of but¬ 
termilk before he saw there was an accident, 
and Mary Jane wondered stupidly why she had 
never noticed before how much the floor sloped 
toward the entry. The buttermilk ran over her 
father’s shoes. 

“This is a sad state of affairs, Daughter,” 
her father said with grave reproof, “but we 
will go around by the other door. The min¬ 
ister has called to see your mother, and this 
good man, the indigo peddler, needs some 
breakfast. He has traveled far this morning. 
Attend to his needs and I doubt not he will 
show his gratitude in some way that will help 
you.” 

Mary Jane looked ruefully at the confusion, 
but gratefully to her father for his forbearance. 
Abigail had meant well, and accidents would 
happen. Even if it was housecleaning time, the 
peddler must be fed. Father believed that all 
hungry people should be treated kindly. “Bet¬ 
ter to feed a dozen ungracious ones,” he said, 
“than to turn away one deserving and needy.” 
Mary Jane directed Abigail to bring out cold 


24 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


porridge and salt fish and milk for the peddler, 
while she mopped up the floor. 

As Mistress Dodd finished her call and came 
out of their mother’s room, Mary Jane looked 
up from the floor and asked her if she would 
not take home a pat of new butter. 

“ ’Twill not come amiss with hot Johnny 
cake, Mistress Dodd,” she said, as she went on 
with her mopping. 

“Yes, indeed, I will be glad to have it, Mary 
Jane, and thank you, too. What a bother to 
lose the good buttermilk,” she added, looking 
at the floor. Then she slyly pinched Mary 
Jane’s white arm. 

“John Lewis came home last night, and they 
say he looks fine and hearty, Mary Jane. Think 
you he has learned to talk and ask questions? 
Have you an answer ready for him? Do not 
turn away your head, child, I mean naught by 
these bantering words. Later, I will send Sam 
for our baked beans. Thank you for letting 
us use your oven. Good-day, all.” 

Mary Jane finished cleaning up the floor and 
scattered the children who had gathered in the 
kitchen. Strangers were an event, and the 
young ones looked at the peddler eagerly and 
intently. The old man sat down and drew 
toward him the bowl of porridge, first taking a 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 25 

long draught of the buttermilk near at hand. 
Looking up from her task, Mary Jane re¬ 
proved Dorothy for staring. 



Figure 13. Reel for Winding Thread 

“Take this flagon of buttermilk up to the 
flax patch. We saved this much in the churn. 
’Tis ten o’clock and Father and John must be 
hungry. The drink will help them through 
the next hour.” 







26 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


Turning to Abigail, she suggested that she 
put out of doors the rocking-chair and small 
table. The Bible and work-basket and 
mother’s reel might go into mother’s room. 
Perhaps the peddler would help her move the 
settles out on the grass. Mary Jane herself 
knelt down on the hearth to take up the ashes. 

The peddler jumped up. “Willing hands 
make light work, Mistress Mary, and out 
go the tables and the chairs. Back again! 
and now, my dears, we are ready for the old 
settles. Came from the sturdy land of Eng¬ 
land, these did.” 

Mary Jane frowned and settled her cap with 
dignity. “I like not too much talk. If we 
save our breath it will help in the lifting. 
Be careful of the door, please, I would not have 
the wood scarred.” 

“Clear the ways, my hearties,” the peddler 
called, not seeming to be disturbed by Mary 
Jane’s dignified words, “I’m the man for that 
job. Up you get, Mistress Mary, and down 
goes Jake, the indigo peddler. I can holystone 
a deck, why not brush up the ashes?” 

Mary Jane looked doubtfully at her helper, 
but she soon admitted that he used the shovel 
and the turkey wing with a neat hand. Father 
said that it was often more generous to accept 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 27 

help than to give it, and so thinking, she turned 
to other work. 

Directing Dorothy to take one kettle and 



' C 

Figure 14. Kettle 


Abigail the other, Mary Jane started them to 
cleaning the woodwork. There was plenty of 
hot water in the big pot which had been hang¬ 
ing on the crane, and there were soft soap and 
stout cloths. The girls were careful not to 














28 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


waste the soap, but they hunted for every speck 
and streak of dirt. Having answered a call 
from her mother, Mary Jane came back to the 
kitchen, bright-eyed, but demure. Mother 



had said that she wished Abigail to wash up 
the bricks in the fireplace, and Mary Jane 
would clean the windows. Master Jake had 
helped them generously, but they could finish 
up the rest of the work alone, their mother 
thought.” 

“Just as the Mistress says. I’ll be off. In¬ 
digo has gone a-begging this morning, but per¬ 
haps I can sell some cochineal up the road. 
Good-day and the Lord bless ye!” So saying 
the old man bent to his pack and trudged away. 

















A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 29 


Abigail stood and pondered. She was mis- 
chieviously interested in the change of plan. 
Mary Jane generally washed out the fireplace. 

“What does it mean, Dorothy? Dost think 
John Lewis would notice if Mary Jane’s hands 
were smutted and grimy?” 

“Methinks ’tis best for us to stop talking 
and get to our work. Mother would have Mary 
Jane make a good impression. Mary Jane is 
comely, and John Lewis is not a-courting us .” 
Dorothy’s reproof was gently made, and she 
smiled at Abigail. 

The three sisters worked steadily and swiftly. 
Mary Jane appeared not to hear the whisper¬ 
ing of the younger girls. She polished the 
windows, and the warm sunshine filled the 
room. She soon relieved Dorothy of further 
cleaning, and sent her into the yard under the 
hickory tree to sew a long seam. The child 
fastened her work with a sewing-bird to a little 
table, and sewed industriously. 

John came in just then, and took down the 
shoemaker’s last. He wanted to get out an 
ugly nail from his mother’s shoe. She would 
soon be up again. Mary Jane asked him if he 
would take the children out to hunt for hens’ 
nests after he had finished. She hoped to have 
a custard for supper. 


30 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 



A little later her father followed John in 
from the flax patch, and the family gathered 
for dinner, eating cold boiled salmon and the 
dried-apple pie which Mary Jane had hurriedly 
made in the morning. These, with milk and 
Johnny cake, soon satisfied the hungry workers 
and each was back at his task. 

Father and John predicted a thunder¬ 
shower in the late afternoon, and Mary Jane 
looked anxiously at the clouds. Perhaps the 
shower would go round? She was not much 
tired, she thought, and the work, in spite of 
accidents, was going well. It would be too 
hard if she finished the kitchen in time and 










A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 31 


then had to give up her visit to Jenny because 
of a thunder-shower. But after dinner the 
work went more slowly. It seemed as if she 
could not get things all finished and the kitchen 
looking just right. She was more tired than 
she had realized. But her determination to 
get away for a little time before supper grew 
with her weariness. She worked desperately to 
put the finishing touches on the room, and, 
after a while, it suited her. 

Abigail and Dorothy had gone out with John 
and the little boys to hunt for eggs, before they 
washed and changed their dresses. Mary 
Jane’s mother and the little baby brother were 
sleeping and her grandmother’s spinning-wheel 
made the only sound in the afternoon’s stillness. 
The room darkened with the coming storm. The 
leaves of the red geraniums moved in the rising 
wind, and the white, sash curtains blew out into 
the room. Mary Jane picked a dried leaf out 
of the basket of freshly laundered caps and 
straightened the blue calico cushion in the rock¬ 
ing chair. She opened the door of the brick 
oven where Mrs. Dodd’s beans and their own 
had been baking since morning. The beans were 
baked perfectly in the round, brown pots, and 
their fragrant, appetizing odor filled the room. 
Looking about, before she went upstairs, Mary 


32 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


Jane felt that her mother would be satisfied 
with the appearance of the kitchen. The brass 
andirons in the fireplace and the shovel and 
tongs glowed from Abigail’s honest rubbing. 
The black pots and copper kettles had been 



Figure 17. Andirons or Fire-Dogs 


cleaned inside and out and hooked on to the 
swinging frame. The waffle-irons and toaster 
hung on the side of the fireplace and the grid¬ 
iron stood on its three slender legs beside the 
hearth. A small fire burned red on the hearth 









Plate II. Colonial Fireside 























A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 33 




Figure 19. A Gridiron 








34 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


and a gentle cloud of steam rose from the bub¬ 
bling kettle. The brass warming-pan made a 
blob of light against the dull red bricks. The 



Figure 20. Knife-Tray 



Figure 21. Spectacles and Bible 

dresser was white from its recent scrubbing 
and the pewter on it shone brightly. Grand¬ 
mother’s blue plates and saucers had been re¬ 
arranged on the plate rail and the spoons and 
white-handled knives laid back in the mahogany 












A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 35 


boxes on the dresser. John had whittled and 
smoothed those boxes for his mother in the 
winter evenings. The Bible, and the New Eng¬ 
land Primer and Father’s horned spectacles lay 
on the small table in the corner, and the cradle, 
with its new pink and white checked cover, stood 
near the fireplace. When Mother got up, the 
baby would lie in that all day. The floor looked 
nice and clean. It had been freshly sanded and 
the braided rugs laid carefully in their usual 
places before the hearth and doorwa}^. The old 
gray cat had stretched himself near the fire¬ 
place, and his friend, the dog, slept beside him. 

Mary Jane noticed that the wind had blown 
awry Dorothy’s framed sampler which hung on 
the wall. She straightened it and read again 
the words: “Honor thy father and thy mother 
that thy days may be long in the land which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee. Dorothy Ward 
Andrews.” She read the words soberly, and 
thought of her own good father. Picking up 
her clean cap and a basin of water, she started 
upstairs. A sudden clap of thunder shook the 
house and, with the first sprinkle of rain, the 
kitchen door blew open and Jenny Lewis 
dashed in. 

“Just in time, Mary Jane! I am glad you 
are through with your work! I have come to 


36 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


take you home to supper as soon as this shower 
blows over. John told me to tell you he would 
bring you home this evening. He has something 
pretty for you. I do not know what it is, but 
he made it and he feels sure that you will like 
it. You are too good, Mary Jane! I told 
John that you were kinder than I, but perhaps 
you would not like his homemade gift. I am 
very sure that I should not prefer it unless it 
were finer than you could buy in the shops.” So 
talking on, Jenny pushed Mary Jane through 
the stairway door. 

The storm drove her father out of the flax 
patch, and in a few minutes, he hastened into 
the warmth of the kitchen. His wife called from 
the inner room and told him that Jenny Lewis 
had come for Mary Jane and she hoped he 
would allow the girl to go down to Cap’n Lew¬ 
is’s for the evening. There could be no harm, 
the mother said, in Mary Jane having well-to- 
do friends. John Lewis was a sober, indus¬ 
trious youth, even though his sister Jenny was 
rather flighty. She would like to have Mary 
Jane go more often to visit in Jenny’s home. 
As the mother made her ambitious little plans, 
the girls came into the kitchen. Mary Jane 
glanced shyly at her father. She was wearing 
her best summer dress. 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 37 


“Jenny has asked me down to her house for 
supper, Father. The storm has passed around, 
and the sun is coming out. I should like to go. 
Everything is ready to put on the table for 
your supper, and Abigail can attend to the 
children. Jenny says she and John will walk 
a piece with me when I come home.” 

“Why, Mary Jane Andrews, I never said 
anything of the sort!” Jenny exclaimed, “John 
sent word he wanted to bring you home.” 

Mary Jane’s father looked at her search- 
ingly and gravely. Mary Jane had not meant 
to tell a fib but she was always bashful when 
she spoke of John Lewis. Could there be a 
smile in her father’s eye? She thought not. 
She dropped her own eyes and waited. In a 
minute her father spoke: 

“Better not go out to-night, Daughter. Your 
mother will be up in a day or two, and then 
there will be more freedom for you. Respon¬ 
sibility will not hurt any lass and a small dis¬ 
appointment is better than a pleasure taken at 
the wrong time.” 

“Tell John,” her father added as he turned 
to Jenny, “that we shall be glad to see him 
when he calls up here. I hear that your father 
has made another successful trip. It is a hard 
and dangerous life he lives on the sea. May 


38 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


the Lord prosper him.” Then Mary Jane’s 
father went out. 

Jenny flung herself into the rocker and spoke 
angrily to Mary Jane. 

“I am glad indeed that my father is not a 
cross-patch! What does your father think? 
Just because he is one of the elders in the 
church must his daughter have no pleasure? 
He does not give you any gay dresses. Even 
your best dress is just this blue one with a 
white kerchief. It is not fair, and now he will 
spoil our little pleasure. I believe he likes to 
forbid you to do things, just because he knows 
you will obey. Why do you? Come with me 
and show your father you have a right to a few 
minutes in the day! Perhaps he does not ap¬ 
prove of me! Well, I do not care. Come, 
Mary Jane. Come down and see my new 
dresses. Your father said, ‘Better not go out 
to-night’; he did not forbid you to go. You 
can tell him that when you come back. Oh, 
what is the use of coaxing! You look just as 
stubborn as your father. Good-by, I am going 
home!” 

“Come back here, Jenny Lewis!” Mary Jane 
called after her. “I am glad I look like my 
father! He has a perfect right to keep me at 
home if he wants to. Folks feel sorry because 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 39 



your father has to work so hard and spend so 
much of his money on clothes for you. I like 
pretty clothes too, but if my father thinks I 


Figure 22. Wheel for Spinning Flax 


am putting too much thought on myself, he 
tells me so. He shows me my duty.” 

Mary Jane pulled her flax-wheel toward her 
and whirled the wheel rapidly. 




40 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


“My father believes I will grow in grace and 
patience for big sorrows and disappointments 
if I bear little ones cheerfully. What kind of 
practice are you getting, Jenny Lewis? It is 
wicked to talk about a father as you have 
talked about mine. I am not disappointed one 
bit about not going to your house. I like my 
homespun dresses and I can make linen as fine 
as you get in your dresses from England. When 
I get the kitchen cleaned and the floor sanded 
and the white curtains in place I feel happy. 
It is my work and it pleases my mother and I 
like to do it. Father does not say much about 
our work, because he expects us to do it well. 
He knows work is good for us. But what are 
you doing, Jenny? All you think about is 
pretty dresses and looking gay. I am glad 
Father thought I was needed here at sup¬ 
pertime — but I will come down to your 
house some other night,” Mary Jane said more 
gently. 

“Perhaps you are right, Mary Jane, but 
you need not get so cross about it. I may be 
lazy, I suppose, but I do not see what there is 
about work that makes you like to do it, and 
in disappointment, even a little one, that makes 
you glad to bear it.” 

“Jenny, I cannot explain. I like to cook 



Plate III. Domestic Industry 



















































* 










































A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 41 


and clean and spin and knit. That’s the way I 
feel. It isn’t hard. I don’t mean to be con¬ 
ceited or think myself better than other people, 
but somehow when my father is strictest with 
me something inside of me likes it. Here comes 
Dorothy with a bunch of pink and white ar¬ 
butus. It grows late up in the woods. How 
pretty it is! Our Pilgrim grandmothers must 
have been glad to see it peeping up from the 
snow after their long, hard winters. Who is 
this coming in with the boys? Why, it is your 
brother John! Jenny, will you and John stay 
to supper with us?” Mary Jane turned to her 
friend eagerly. 

“Yes, Mary Jane, and I will help you with 
the dishes and, after supper, John shall tell us 
stories about his voyage. It is just as well we 
were disappointed! I will try to be a more 
dutiful daughter, Mary Jane. I guess Father 
and Mother like to have me visit you. They 
chide me for my heedless ways.” 

The girls and boys came trooping in to¬ 
gether and Mary Jane pushed aside her flax- 
wheel and stirred the embers on the hearth, 
laying on fresh sticks. John Lewis met her 
with awkward shyness and dropping a bulky 
package on the chair beside her said, “Open 
it later, Mary Jane. It is for you. I whittled 


42 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


it out in spare minutes aboard the Breezy 
Belle.” 

Jenny called across the room. 

“Hurry up, John Lewis, and all of you boys 
wash while we help Mary Jane dish up the 
beans. It is supper time, and she has asked 
you and me to stay. Here is Sam Dodd, Mary 
Jane.” 

“Oh yes, he wants his mother’s beans. They 
are the ones in the back of the oven, Jenny. 
Please help him. 

“We shall be glad to help you while your 
oven is being repaired, Sam. Tell your mother 
to send in anything she wants to have baked. 

“Do open the door for him, John. It would 
be a pity for him to drop the beans and spoil 
his mother’s supper.” 

So, laughing and hurrying, Mary Jane and 
her helpers soon had on the table their supper 
of baked beans and brown bread, custards and 
cool drinks of milk. After supper, Father 
asked his family and the company to gather 
for prayers at once for he had an errand up the 
road and wished to get back early. The plant¬ 
ing and housecleaning days were hard ones and 
he knew that his folks needed to get to bed in 
good season if they wanted to do good work 
the following day. 


< 



Plate IV. Tea Time 















































A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 43 


Mary Jane placed a candle on the table near 
the Bible and the children drew up their stools 
and Father’s chair. Father read the twenty- 
third psalm and knelt to pray. He thanked 
the Lord for the blessings of the day, the fair 
weather and plentiful food and his helpful 
sons and daughters. He prayed that all young 



Figure 23. Powder-Horn 


souls, untried in the furnace of life, should lean 
on the Lord and strive to do their duty nobly 
as He would show it to them. He prayed 
earnestly and rose from his knees weary but 
heartened. The young folks went gravely 
about the task of clearing away the dishes. But 
when Father Andrews departed, their solemnity 
gave place to mirth and jolly fun. John raked 
open the coals and brought out a little pop¬ 
corn that had lasted through the winter. 
Thomas agreed to pop it for them, and John 






44 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


took down his powder-horn. He wanted to 
finish whittling the design on it. Dorothy 
coaxed Jenny down on the settle to tell about 
her visit in Boston and Mary Jane brought out 
a skein of soft, white wool. 

“Perhaps you will hold this for me, John 
Lewis? I am going to knit a hood for the 
new babe Samuel, but the wool must first be 
wound in a ball.” 

“No, Mary Jane, there is a better way to 
hold that worsted than on a man’s outstretched 
arms. Open the package I brought you and 
look within.” 

Mary Jane untied the hempen cord fastened 
about the bundle John had brought in and the 
boys and girls gathered near, with jest and 
laughing glances. So John Lewis had made 
their sister something! Well, he always looked 
as if he liked her, but this was proof indeed. 
What could it be, so bulky and strange looking? 
Would Mary Jane never get it out? She 
handled the string slowly (almost lovingly, 
John Lewis hoped). But at last the covers fell 
off on her lap, and she held out a dainty and 
beautifully polished swift. John took it from 
her, and, placing it on the table, dropped over 
the outspread spokes, her skein of white 
worsted. He quickly found the end of the 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 45 


skein, and placing it gently in Mary Jane’s 
hand, bade her wind the ball. As the reel turned 
slowly and Mary Jane’s ball grew large and 



Figure 24. Swift for Winding Yarn 


soft, she lifted her eyes gratefully to John 
Lewis. The others had withdrawn to the settles 
and fireplace and John made bold to whisper 
as he leaned across the corner of the table; 





















46 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


“Mary Jane, will you walk out with me on 
the Sabbath? ’Twill be a long six months be¬ 
fore we put to sea again, and, perhaps, in that 
time you may come to like a slow fellow like me. 
Maybe I can make you a chest to put your caps 
and linens in while I am home. That would 
make you think of me when you put things in 
it after I am gone. Will you walk with me, 
Mary Jane?” 

Mary Jane twirled the reel and examined the 
cunningly wrought initials of her name on the 
side and flushed a lovely color when she dis¬ 
covered J. L. — John Lewis — just below 
them. She gazed laughingly at John and 
nodded her head, but her shy whisper left him 
speechless: 

“I do not think you are a slow fellow, John, 
and I like you now. I have liked you a long 
time! I have a chest and it is half full of fine 
linen. I have been busy.” 

“Mary Jane, did you think of me as you 
spun the linen and dyed the wool?” 

Mary Jane nodded again and picked up her 
knitting-needles. Her father came in and John 
jumped to his feet. 

“Elder Andrews, may I have Mary Jane for 
my wife? She likes me, she sa}^s, and we need 
not wait? Will you let us have the banns pub- 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 47 


lished this Sabbath approaching? I am twenty, 
sir, and Mary Jane is sixteen. That is only 
a year younger than my father and mother 
were when they married and came to the 
colony.” 

“Daughter, is this your wish?” her father 
asked. 

A solemn hush fell on the group in the 
kitchen. Grandmother stood in the doorway and 
gazed affectionately on the oldest daughter of 
their family. She knew the sterling worth of 
the girl John Lewis desired for his wife, and 
she knew that if these young people married, 
another home would be established in the col¬ 
ony which would be a power for righteousness 
and godly living. 

Mary Jane looked steadfastly at her father, 
and tucked her hand under John’s arm as she 
answered : 

“Yes, Father.” 

“Then God bless you both, my children, and 
may you believe all that is required in this 
world is for you to live justly, to love mercy 
and to walk humbly with your God.” 

So saying, he walked quietly from the room. 
The brothers and sisters crowded about Mary 
Jane and John, and Jenny whispered as she put 
on her bonnet: “Mary Jane, I like your father.” 


48 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


Mary Jane smiled gently. A peace and hap¬ 
piness had come into her heart that knew no 
words. She turned to John to say good-night. 
Her father’s blessing shone from her loyal, 
brave eyes, and John Lewis knew that he was 
truly fortunate among men. 


HOW TO BUILD A COLONIAL KITCHEN 


IN SCHOOL, LIBRARY OR MUSEUM 



IVE to an intelligent carpenter the 
following directions : 


Make the kitchen, if possible, as 
large as 16' x 20'. Put the fireplace 
in the center of one of the longer sides. On 


the opposite side make the wall the height of 


an ordinary table, 31", except for a space of 3' 
at each end, thus leaving an opening on that 
side about 11 feet long. Through this opening 
the kitchen will be chiefly viewed. At the right 
of the opening put a door, cut in half in the 
old Dutch fashion. (Plate I.) 

Build the walls of “compo-board,” a trade 
article easily obtained, and costing (January, 
1921) about 8 cents per square foot. We 
have found nothing so serviceable as this for 
light and temporary interior construction. 
Make the walls not over 8' high. Construct 
rafters of thin boards — they may even be of 


49 


50 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


compo-board and hollow, and lay them across 
from wall to wall. (Plate II.) 

At one end put 2 or 3 windows. These win¬ 
dows should be small and have small panes. The 
sash need not be movable. The windows in 
the picture were found at a junk shop, as 
were also the door already mentioned and the 
one for the corner cupboard. (Plate III.) 

Plate II shows the character of the fire¬ 
place and its size, and gives the mantel-piece 
in ample detail. The bricks are, of course, only 
such in appearance, being painted on. The 
crane may be a genuine old one, or of wood. 
The fire is made by an electric lamp, hidden in 
the sticks and covered with red tissue. 

The wainscoting and the mantel-piece are 
simple in the extreme. The appearance of pan¬ 
eling is produced by tacking molding on the 
walls of compo-board, all as indicated. The 
ceiling is made of cotton cloth stretched tightly 
above the beams. 

In one corner is a cupboard. This can be 
made, as in the picture, with an ordinary small 
door, or can be a genuine antique. On the walls 
may be hung a hood, tippets, mittens and a few 
other domestic articles, all as indicated. Above 
are peppers, a few strings of dried apples, etc. 
But be chary of objects and keep the whole 
atmosphere simple. (Plate IV.) 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 51 


Paint rafters, wainscoting and cornice all 
the same color, as suits the taste of the con¬ 
structor. The walls above the wainscoting 
should be very near white for lighting purposes. 

Outside so place bushes like barberries that 
they may be seen through the windows. (Plate 

hi.) 

We found it desirable to have the kitchen 
lighted from one end. Thus lighted it looked 
much like a genuine interior at sunset. To get 
this illumination through the windows at one 
end, we first reduced the general lighting of the 
room in which the kitchen was erected. We 
then placed, a few feet from the windows, a 
large screen of cotton cloth on which were 
sketched in strong color a tree against a bril¬ 
liant yellow sunset sky. Right under the win¬ 
dows we placed several strong electric lights 
with reflectors, throwing a brilliant light upon 
the screen above mentioned. From the screen, 
as if from a sunset, there came a yellow light 
into the room, adding greatly to the beauty 
and attractiveness of the whole interior. 

The furnishings of the room will depend on 
what may be found available for the purpose. 



APPENDIX 


FIGURE 1 

Well and well-sweep. Water was rarely 
piped into houses and barns. Lacking a brook 
or spring a well was dug near the bouse. 
Pumps were expensive and not often used, but 
a device like this for lifting water from a well 
could easily be made. The pole, or sweep, was 
so weighted at the large end that it would 
almost lift the vertical stick and the bucket at 
the other end when the latter was full of water. 
A moderate pull on the vertical pole carried 
the bucket down to the water. When the 
bucket had filled a moderate lift on the pole 
brought it to the top. A chain from A to B 
gave room to lift the bucket over the curb. 

FIGURE 2 

Candlesticks were often of brass, though 
the poorer people used those made of wood, iron 
or tin; and three nails driven into a bit of board 
could serve very well. Those of brass were 
often beautiful. 


53 


54 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


The knob on the upright of the stick at the 
left slid up and down in a slot and carried with 
it a movable base; with this device the candle 
was lifted out of the upright as it burned, until 
the base came to the top and the last atom of 
the candle burned. 

The central stick shows a like device, and has 
also a thin projecting arm of brass which could 
be put into a socket in the wall. 

The third one has its candle covered by an 
extinguisher, a hollow cone, dropped on a 
lighted candle to put it out. The upstanding 
extension of brass has a hole in its end, and by 
this can be hung over a nail in the wall. 

FIGURE 3 

A porringer or shallow bowl, often of pew¬ 
ter and sometimes of silver, with a handle which 
was commonly decorated with perforations. 
The perforations helped to keep the handle 
cool. The porringer was chiefly used on the 
table as a dish, though food was often cooked 
in it also. It was most often used for serving 
food to children. 


FIGURE 4 


A cast-iron skillet with legs to lift it above 
the coals and ashes. As all cooking vessels were 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 55 


used at an open fire they were all made either 
to hang above it like a pot or to stand before it 
like a tin oven, or to rest upon its coals like a 
three-legged skillet. 

FIGURE 5 

A tin kitchen or roaster. A box of tin 
standing on legs and with one side open. A 
steel spit was stuck through the meat and the 
meat was fastened to it by skewers, which 
passed through the meat and through small 
holes in the spit itself. All was then 
placed in the roaster, which was set before 
the fire. The spit was turned from time to 
time as the cooking required. Gravy was 
caught in the hollow below, and some of it was 
now and then taken up in a spoon and poured 
on the meat. This was “basting.” The task 
of turning the spit by the crank on one end of 
it was often given to a boy. In the homes of 
the wealthy and in taverns the one who thus 
minded the roast was often called a turn-spit. 
By means of simple tread-mill devices a dog 
was often used to turn the crank, and he then 
became a turn-spit dog. 


56 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


FIGURE 6 

A plate-warmer. This was a box of tin or 
sheet iron on legs, with a door in one side. It 
stood near the fire and in it were placed dishes 
to be warmed, and food that was cooked and 
ready to eat but needed to be kept hot until 
the rest of the meal was prepared, or until all 
the family had gathered and were ready to sit 
down to the table. In very cold weather the 
kitchen sometimes could not be kept warm, no 
matter how big and hot the fire in the fireplace. 
It was then a comfort, and almost a luxury, 
to have hot dishes from which to eat the food 
which the cold room soon chilled. 

FIGURE 7 

A wool spinning-wheel. The spinner walked 
back and forth in using this wheel, and her walk 
was often many miles in a day’s spinning. A 
band of stout cord goes around the big wheel 
and around the spindle. A strand of wool, 
very light and loose, is gently drawn by hand 
from the distaff to the end of the finished 
thread which is wound about the spindle. This 
strand is held loosely in the left hand. The 
right hand on one of the spokes of the large 
wheel gives it a smart turn. The spinner then 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 57 


walks away from the machine and the spindle, 
swiftly turned by the momentum of the large 
wheel, twists the loose strand of wool into a 
close thread. This thread is of such length and 
of such size and hardness of twist as the spinner 
decides upon, all being dependent on the force 
with which the big wheel is pushed, on the 
thickness of the loose strand of wool, and on 
the way in which the spinner holds it as she 
walks from the wheel. The finished thread is 
then wound on the spindle by gently reversing 
the large wheel, and holding the thread at the 
spindle. Then the same process is repeated. 

FIGURE 8 

A cradle. Few colonial babies had rocking 
cradles as luxurious as this; indeed, few had 
cradles at all. 


FIGURE 9 

A wooden churn. Its like is used to this 
day. In former times churning was one of the 
tasks that many a farmer’s boy had too much 
of. On the lower end of the handle, which 
passed down through a hole in the center of the 
cover, was a disk of wood, perforated and 
fitting loosely in the tall tub. The tub was 


58 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 

partially filled with cream and the butter was 
made to “come” by moving the handle up 
and down and thus splashing the disk up and 
down in the cream. 

FIGURE 10 

A flint-lock gun. The flint was fastened 
into the hammer and, as it drove down against 
a curved shield, it raised a shower of sparks 
and at the same time lifted the shield and ex¬ 
posed to the sparks the powder in the pan. 
The powder, being thus ignited, the fire fol¬ 
lowed it through the hole into the barrel and 
exploded the powder in the “charge” behind the 
bullet or shot. All flint-locks “hung fire.” 
That is, the pulling of the trigger did not dis¬ 
charge the gun as quickly as it does in modern 
guns where the exploding cap is connected di¬ 
rectly with the charge in the cartridge. 

A flint-lock pistol. This operated just as 
did the flint-lock gun. 

FIGURE 11 

The warming-pan. In most houses the only 
warm place was by the kitchen fire. In winter 
the bedrooms were about as cold as the weather 
out of doors. This made the beds far from 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 59 


comfortable to get into on a cold night. The 
warming-pan was a basin of brass or copper 
with a hinged cover, sometimes decorated. Hot 
ashes and coals from the kitchen fire were put 
into it; it was then carried to the bed and the 
hot pan was pushed up and down between the 
sheets until the whole bed was warm. 

FIGURE 12 

Snuffers. Here, as in many of the other 
pictures in this book, a tea-cup and saucer are 
placed near the drawing of the object to be 
described. This is added to give a correct 
idea of the relative size of the objects repre¬ 
sented. In each case the object to be described 
and the tea-cup are drawn to the same scale; 
and, as you know about how large a tea-cup is, 
you get a clear idea of the size of the object 
by which it stands. 

Snuffers were used to snip off the end of a 
candle wick. As the tallow or wax melted and 
burned, the top of the wick, although it was 
burned to a mere black bit of coal, held fast to 
the part of the wick which still continued to 
draw up the melted tallow into the flame. If 
this black end was not now and then picked off 
with the snuffers, or some other instrument, or 


60 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


with the fingers, it dropped over and perhaps 
hit the top of the candle and kept it from burn¬ 
ing bright and clear. 

The snuffers are like a pair of scissors, with 
a box on one blade and a cover for the box on 
the other. When used they were handled like 
a pair of scissors and the black end of the wick 
was snipped into the box out of sight and harm. 
The pointed end of one blade was used to prick 
up the wick if it did not stand straight or was 
too tightly twisted. The three legs kept the 
snuffers, which were sooty on the under side 
from being stuck into the candle flame, away 
from the table or the tray where they were 
usually kept. 

The candles of to-day do not often need to be 
snuffed, because as their wicks, which are care¬ 
fully twisted, are burned free of the tallow, wax 
or paraffin, they bend a little in the effort to 
untwist. This bending thrusts the used-up end 
sidewise into the hot, outer flame and there it 
is quite burned up. In old days the wicks 
were not twisted much, if at all, and so, as the 
candle melted from them, — they stuck up into 
the dull, smoky, non-burning part of the flame, 
and stayed there until they hung over or fell off. 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 61 


FIGURE 13 

A reel for winding the thread into skeins, 
from the spindle which was taken from the 
spinning-wheel as soon as it was filled. By 
means of a cog wheel and a worm screw within 
the box, and a pointer on its side, the number 
of turns of the reel were easily counted, and 
that told the length of the thread wound on it. 
As the wheel revolved it made a loud click for 
each of a certain number of turns. 

FIGURE 14 

Kettles were usually made of iron; these 
had to be cast and not wrought, but, as they 
were usually thick and heavy, most large ket¬ 
tles were made of thin brass, sometimes of cop¬ 
per. These tarnished easily and one of the 
many and not very pleasant tasks of the house¬ 
wife was to keep them clean and bright. 

FIGURE 15 

In th fireplace was hung a swinging crane 
of iron. Suspended from it were hooks on 
which pots and kettles were hung. The hooks 
could be moved along the crane and were of 
different lengths and sometimes adjustable. The 
crane could thus hold several kettles at once, 
some in the very heat of the fire and some 


62 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


farther away. The fireplace was the center of 
the home, the one source of heat, the one place 
for cooking and often the one source of light 
at night. Many pioneers and their families 
had to do all their reading on long winter 
evenings by the light of the open fire. 

When a house was built and the chimney and 
fireplace finished, the “hanging of the crane,” 
the final step in preparation for housekeeping, 
was sometimes part of a ceremony, with Bible 
reading, hymns and prayers, followed by feast¬ 
ing and rejoicing. 

FIGURE 16 

All sewing was done by hand. A sewing- 
bird was often fastened to a table by a thumb¬ 
screw. The cloth was caught in the beak as 
desired and this made the sewing easier. 

FIGURE 17 

Andirons or fire-dogs were used in every 
house, for all fires were of wood and in fire¬ 
places. The poorer people were content with 
very simple andirons, made of wrought or cast 
iron and without any ornament. In these, the 
standards are made tall and they have as orna¬ 
ments little vase-forms of brass at their tops. 

Tongs and shovel were as necessary as the 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 63 


andirons, and like them were often of the 
simplest make. These have handsome brass 
handles. 


FIGURE 18 

A Toasting rack. Slices of bread were placed 
on edge between the curved bars, and the rack 
was then set before the fire. The flat strip of 
iron to which the bars were fastened could be 
made to revolve on the bar below, attached to 
the handle so that when one side of the bread 
was toasted, the other side was easily turned 
to the fire. 


FIGURE 19 

A gridiron, used not only for cooking meat 
but also as a rest on which to set cooking uten¬ 
sils of any kind, raising them above the coals 
below. All utensils of this type stood on legs to 
lift them a little above the coals and ashes. 

FIGURE 20 

Knife-tray, used also for spoons. It was 
handy and took the place of a drawer. In 
many of the home-made tables for the kitchen 
there was no drawer. The tray was usually 
made of wood and very simple. 


64 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


FIGURE 21 

Spectacles and Bible. The rings at the 
ends of the frames gripped the head behind the 
eyes a little and helped to hold the spectacles 
more securely. The rims and frames were 
often made of iron and were then very heavy. 

A big Bible like this, with brass corners and 
clasps, was in many colonial homes. From it 
the head of the house read aloud every morn¬ 
ing or evening. In it, on blank leaves between 
the Old and New Testaments, was kept the 
“Family Record,” that is, a list of births, mar¬ 
riages and deaths with dates, sometimes going 
back for several generations. 

FIGURE 22 

A wheel for spinning flax. At this wheel 
the spinner, almost always a woman, sat to 
spin. The process was quite similar to that 
followed with a wool-wheel; but the wheel was 
made to revolve by a pedal like that on a sew¬ 
ing machine. 

FIGURE 23 

A powder-horn. Powder was almost always 
carried in a horn. The horn was usually home 
made and very simple. A cow’s horn, which is 


A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 65 


hollow, was patiently scraped on the inside until 
it was smooth and as thin as the maker desired. 
In the larger end was fitted a bottom of wood, 
and in this was fastened a ring or a nail. The 
small end was cut off to give a hole of proper 
size. In the horn was cut a rim or groove. To 
this groove and to the ring in the bottom a 
stout cord was fastened, which passed over the 
hunter’s shoulder and held the horn at a conven¬ 
ient place at his right side. The opening was 
stopped by a wooden plug, so made that it 
could be easily removed and held in the teeth, 
so that the hunter might have both hands free 
to pour out the powder. Often a smaller horn 
was carried in the pocket to hold a finer and 
quicker-acting powder to fill the pan for firing. 
Being finer, it entered the hole more easily and 
joined the powder of the main charge. Being 
quicker-acting, it helped to lessen the “hang 
fire” habit. 


FIGURE 24 

A swift, which was fastened to the edge of a 
table by a thumb-screw. A skein of yarn was 
placed on it just as it was expanded, like an 
umbrella, and then, the swift turning as the 
yarn was pulled, the yarn could be easily wound 
from it into a ball or on to a spool. 



66 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


FIGURE 25 


A spider or skillet with a bail by which it 
could be hung over the fire from the crane. It 
also has legs for standing among the coals. 








A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


67 




































































































































































68 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


FIGURE 26 

This house is suggested in part by a picture 
of the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in Alice Morse 
Earle’s Child Life in Colonial Days , but chiefly 
by the floor plan in Abbott’s “Rodolphus,” 
Harpers Magazine , VoL 4, 1851, page 441. 

FIGURE 27 

This floorplan is taken from Abbott’s “Ro¬ 
dolphus,” Harper's Magazine , Yol. 4, 1851, 
page 444. 











A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 69 


PLATE I 

Colonial Kitchen in the Newark Museum 

The room in which the kitchen was built at 
the Newark Museum is about 31' x 75'. One 
carpenter, with very little assistance, con¬ 
structed the kitchen in a few days. A house- 
painter painted it in about two days. Its total 
cost, ready for furniture, was not over one hun¬ 
dred and seventy-five dollars. 

PLATE II 
Colonial Fireside 

A picture of the fireplace at one end of an 
old time kitchen which was set up in the Newark 
Library, 1916. Notes on its construction are 
given on pp. 49-51. 

PLATE III 

Domestic Industry 

How the colonial kitchen was used as sewing 
room and nursery. The end of the kitchen 
through whose window is seen the landscape 
painted on screens and the barberry bush 
standing in a pot on the floor. 


70 A DAY IN A COLONIAL HOME 


PLATE IV 

Tea Time 

An old-time dining-table set with old-time 
china and pewter and lighted with candles. The 
end of the kitchen shows the corner cupboard, 
shelves for dishes and hooks for tippets and 
mittens. 


END 


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